Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke | book review

【 YESTERYEAR 】

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Audience: Adult
Author: Caro Claire Burke
Published: April 2026
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Pages: 391 (paperback)

This was certainly an interesting read, and a great one for provoking some good discussions. It’s also a hard one to review while keeping spoiler free, so I’m going to be somewhat vague. Ultimately, this was a gripping read – almost like a mystery – that had you hating the protagonist in a good way, and feeling desperate to understand what is going on. This book really keeps you in the dark, even when you think you might have figured out what’s what.

If you haven’t read the blurb (go read it) – we’re following a young woman, Natalie, who, after marrying a university sweetheart, finds herself unhappy, trapped in the role of a housewife with limited prospects. And so she establishes a social media presence and revamps their life so that she becomes a tradwife through and through. This is her story of running that business, and of one day suddenly waking up several hundred years in the past, now forced to live (survive, more like) on an actual farm. The idea of which drew me in, on the promise of laughing at her expense as she, surely, fails to cope.

I’m going to start with what I didn’t love. Namely, it was the way the crux of the plot is revealed. Again, no spoilers here. So I’ll just say that this wasn’t the book I thought it was going to be, and things felt like the author built up to a grand reveal, but lost the plot a little on how to tie things off neatly. So it had a rushed/untidy feel right where the plot twist happens. It wasn’t an unsatisfying ending, per se, but it’s one of those books that if you start looking at it too closely, you could probably poke a number of holes in the plot.

Twist aside, this was a fascinating read. The main character is fundamentally unlikeable, and I always think it quite talented to be able to write a book where people won’t like the protagonist, but will like the story. Following Natalie’s character progression from a sheltered, naïve girl to a full-blown famous influencer was like watching the most toxic train wreck you’ve ever seen.

She is so deeply flawed and yet she is also doing her darn best to overcome all the challenges placed before her simply because she’s a woman, and a woman who is entirely dependent upon her (useless) husband to live. Until, of course, she takes matters into her own hands to achieve some sense of what we could generously call independence, but what might be better described as an acute level of manipulation and deception, paraded as independence.

There are so many aspects of this book that leave you feeling horrified by the way she acts and thinks, and yet tucked away in some of these moments are glimpses of relatability that horrify you further – because surely you, as the reader, don’t have anything in common with Natalie, right? But there really are some hidden gems that strike such an uncomfortable chord.

I would say this is worth the hype and worth reading. It’s so much fun to discuss with other people, because everyone has such a visceral reaction to this narrative, and it’s fun to dissect with friends. It may not blow your socks off, but it’s probably going to tug them around into an uncomfortable position. And any book that makes you think on such a deep level, questioning how you would react in these situations, is always worth a go, in my opinion.